ABSTRACT
Another way of referring to the development of doctrine would be ‘the vitality of doctrine’. Properly understood the statement of doctrine at a given time is like a section of living tissue; what we learn is not insignificant, but since we are dealing with dynamic material we can be almost certain that there is more to know. There may be aspects of what we know which are virtually the same wherever the section is cut, but even when that is so the changing context of the whole will provoke us to make new judgements about the relationship of what we thought we knew to what we now believe we know.
